Reddy's visit to Ballari: CBI gets another week to file response

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the CBI another week to respond to a plea by former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy for modifying his bail condition to facilitate his visit to Ballari.

A bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy allowed a request made by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and senior advocate Vibha Dutta Makhijia, appearing for the CBI, for more time to file objection to the application filed by Reddy.

The court had on October 1 asked the CBI to file its response on the plea for relaxing the bail conditions on a plea by senior advocate L N Rao, representing the petitioner.

Conditions
While granting bail to the former minister, the apex court had on January 20 put several conditions, including that he shall not visit the districts of Ballari in Karnataka and Ananthapuram and Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh.

Among others, the court had also directed Reddy to cooperate in the smooth process of trial and appear before the CBI special court in Hyderabad, trying the case. It ordered him to furnish two sureties of Rs 10 lakh each as condition for bail.

In his fresh application, Reddy sought permission to visit Ballari to meet his family members. He was arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011.

Reddy, along with the co-accused, is facing five other cases. Reddy is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Bellary Reserve Forest area, spread over Ballari and Anantapur districts.